There’s little truth in “True West.”
With a desert-dwelling drifter who can’t stand the sound of chirping crickets, and his studious screenwriter brother who doesn’t mind, irony introduces the plot of the Sam Shepard play that opens Friday at UIS’ Studio Theatre.
“True West” is the story is of two estranged brothers, Lee and Austin, who both end up back in their mother’s California home as adults, while she vacations in Alaska. The two are presumed to have a father, only referred to as “Old Man,” locked up somewhere nearby.
It’s clear from the first line that the relationship is strained, as well as distant.
“So, mom took off for Alaska, huh?” accuses Lee, played by Eric Thibodeaux-Thompson, UIS associate professor of theater and director of UIS Theatre. The brothers’ mother, played by Susan Jeffers, asked Austin to housesit — but not Lee.
The play was featured in an February 23, 2012, article in The State Journal-Register.
Read the article online